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i bought some black acrylic duplicolor lacquer. its all i could find in lacquer by duplicolor. any way since its cool out

how can i get it to dry thorough. i hav erigge dup a large box with the body in it and warm air blowing in it outside the house. lat time i used duplicolor it took liek a year to not stink fumes etc. that wasnt lacquer will this dry better and not smell.

Actually FYI, there are ALOT of (acrylic) lacquers in Duplicolor's line. The standard auto touchup paints and the Metal flakes are both lacquers. Don't use the Duplicolor for the clear coat though. I've used Deft over Metal Flakes it it worked out well.

Ditto. Make differnt types of necks with the pine: try a strat type with a different wood fingerboard, a strat "all maple" type and a Gibson style with an angled head. Try different neck contours. If you can make a neck with some inlay or binding. You can take strips of wood and stain them for that purpose. I'm still a beginner at actual construction as I've only done refurbishing an small repairs. I plan on doing pine mockups prior to practising on the nice (and more expensive) stuff. I have an ebook I acquired whcih I'd be glad to send you if you wish. I can also send a pdf of a strat and a tele. Send me your e-mail address and they'll go right out.

God Bless and keep your head down.

Would you be willing to share the strat PDF? I have an LPDC and a Jaguar that I could shoot your way

poplar does not stain evenly really...you are better off using a translucent colored spray...like at reranch.com

or this

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Finishing_supp...Spray_Unit.html

Do those units spray evenly? I think I saw in a thread where some people were complaining that it sputtered. Maybe they didn't keep the nozzle clean, or they tried to use the propellant after most was already gone?

You could always dye the clear.

But the problem is that I don't have a spray setup, I've just been using rattlecans.

I found a nice piece of poplar dirt cheap (about $10 for a body blank) and it's very clear for poplar with nice grain to boot. Can I stain this do you think, or will it come out blotchy? I know some will say to try it on a scrap piece, but I don't want to waste money on stain if it's pretty common knowledge (to you guys anyway ) that it'll look like crap.

I searched and didn't find too much info on staining poplar, I guess because most of the poplar you see is not worth clear coating anyways.

Thanks for the info!

Good info here, but don't forget (as much as I like it and think it's an invaluable resource), Melvyn's book assumes that you have some woodworking knowledge under your belt. The 'woodworking' can be some of the hardest stuff do do if you have no tools or experience. Your body needs to be flat, your neck blank square and flat, etc.

As others have mentioned, I definitely recommend trying things on scrap first, make a (relatively) simple bolt on like a Tele, and GO SLOW! It would make sense to buy guitar body and neck blanks, as opposed to raw lumber also, especially if you don't have access to decent tools.

A router is important, but read up on it before you use it. A bit spinning at 22000 RPMs can do alot of damage! There are great how-to books on routers and woodworking in general out there at your library. I suggest you do alot of reading before diving in.

And, GOOD LUCK!

I searched some and didn't quite find the answer I was searching for ...

I know plenty of people will use thinner bodies for comfort, weight reduction, etc.. All other things being as equal as possible (i.e. body/neck materials, pickups, hardware, etc.), what do you think the tonal differences will be in going with a thinner body?

Thanks fof the input

Nice job, especially for your first guitar. I love the figure in the top too

How long did the whole project take you?

I posted the guitar when I finished it last month. this one..

So, I was amazed at the sound of it, with the texas specials and the neckthru... so I started out to get a smaller amp, bluesy like a tweed....

I decided to make my own, using my H&K 200 watt head as a chassis and make me a combo twin. I ordered tweed and oxblood grill cloth for a vintage look. For now, heres the rig...

Amp Pic1

Amp Pic2

More pics of the guitar?

Holy crap ... how thin is that?

I like it though

I did two rosewood boards last night. This one, and one of a flying eyeball w/bat like wings...I'll post more pics of that one later. I used Pearlessence & blue mirrored plexi to get the depth & reflection I wanted. I scribed the back of the mirror on the blue to get the lines in the iris. The diamiter is about .500in.

That kinda gives me the creeps but it's pretty cool!

Hey all! I'm working on my first build from scratch (a tele inspired geetar), and I decided to use white ash 'cause I can get it pretty cheap in case I screw it up. I'm worried though that the ash may be really bright, so what would be some good pickups to get a Tele vibe that might work well with the ash?

I'm still sort of toying with the idea of using P90s, but I'm thinking that I may want to go for a sorta traditional tele sound.

If it is too bright, what are some other options to mellow it out a bit? I could use 500K pots insteat of 250K, right?

Thanks!

not on ash! It will take tons of cans to get it nice. Use an epoxy better. Harder and fills in the pores almost complete on the 1st time thru.

Is epoxy tough to use though? I've never used it to tell you the truth

What sort of epoxy works well for this?

I'm working on building a bass out of white ash. I'm still pretty new to building and finishing, but I've used Duplicolor products a few times before (once on a guitar refinish), and I was wondering if I could use something like their filler primer for grainfilling under a solid color coat.

Here's some info about it ... http://www.duplicolor.com/products/premium.html

What do you think?

Hey all! I'm in the planning stages for an LPDC that I want to build, and I was thinking of joining the neck at the 24th fret. I'd either go with a very long tenon or maybe a neck thru so I'm not so worried about the joint itself, but I'm wondering if you think the balance would be all off by the extra length of the neck. It'll probably be a 25.5" scale too.

I think I remember seeing that someone around here built an LPDC with the joint at the 24th fret, but I can't remember who it was now

Any opinions would be appreciated

I just wanted to tell you guys that I got my new fretboard today ... it's perfectly quartersawn with tight chocalate and black streaks, and no splotchiness or tearout at all. It's absolutely beautiful.

I have nothing but good thiings to say about StewMac's customer service

http://woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=1809

I've got one of these for my table saw and you can use it to joint edges 3" or less (i.e. the height of the blade from the table). It works pretty well on things that would usually be tough to joint, and you can use it like a regular disk sander for convex curves and what not

On my paul that im building at the moment i have opted for a heelless design using a deep neck tennon, worked a treat.

(click to enlarge)

Hey man, that's a beauty

I can't see why not as long as you're not reducing the mechanical stability of the glue contact areas of the tenon and mortise.

Well, I figure that there should be plenty of glueing surface (certainly more than a standard set neck joint).

How deep do you think I should make the mortise? I'm thinking the body will be 1 3/4"

Thanks

I was thinking of trying a deep set tenon joint (probably back to the bridge) on an upcoming project, and I was wondering if you could carve it to make it basically heelless? It's basically be like a neck through in the neck joint area (except for the small part of the body wood at the bottom of the neck mortise).

What do you think?

Do you think it makes more sense to round over the edges before or after you cut your countours (i.e. tummy cut, forearm contour)?

Thanks.

southpa has a point...nobody delivers a fb that doesn't need at least some sanding to make it look it's best.

and even if you somehow did get one that nice,it would be difficult to get to the point where it is ready to fret without putting at least a few scratches in that you would have toremove.

but that chatter you show in the pics is a little rougher than i would expect,though i would probably deal with it just to save time...but i have all of the tools to easily fix that.you may not

The first board that I got from them for another project a few months ago was superior to the last 2 I got. I was just trying to get something in that ballpark. I know I'll have to do some work on it anyway before fretting, but the less the better since I'm still new at this and really don't want to screw it up! I have a radiused sanding block. What else do you think I'd need in the pre-fretting stage?

Thanks for all the help folks!

it's probably "genuine" mahogany or possibly luan...those are pretty light in color as opposed to the others...does it look like this?the wood in the middle section i mean?because that is "genuine" mahogany...it is less dense and not as desired as honduran and others...but it is still fine wood.most places here just call that "mahogany" and nothing else

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o199/we...pg?t=1165103955

Not quite like that ... I don't think a place with a decent reputation like Woodcraft would sell lauan as mahogany for $8/bd ft.

I hope

I see lauan every day at work, and I don't think it could be that, but again I'm no expert

I was in my (semi)local Woodcraft store today to pick up some wood for a mahogany neck and they only have one 'type' of indescript mahogany. How can you tell if it's honduran, african, etc?

The chunk I bought for my neck (2" x 4"+ x 36") is light (maybe 2-2.5 lbs), rather light brownish (as opposed to reddish), and has some cool ribbon striping.

My camera just ran out of batteries or i'd show you a pic What are the general ways you can tell mahoganies apart?

Thats what you call Popcorn Quilt

and yes it is most likely hard we have a bunch of that stuff....Good Find

and yes it is very useable. and depending on how bad the twist and can be removed on a joiner

but you dont say it dimentions so i could not say

Cool!

Here's another pic I tweaked a bit to make it look a little more like it does in person.

As far as dimensions, I bought it as a 1x6 and 3' long (so really it's like 3/4" x 5 1/2" by 3'). I think I could get it flat but it'd be in the 1/2" to 3/8" range, depending on how careful I am and how my jointer blades are doing!